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Catimon mango brings year-round cultivation prospects
BSS, Rajshahi
“Catimon”, a mango variety of Thailand, is creating a scope to produce mangoes throughout the year in Rajshahi region, including its vast Barind tract, breaking the existing record of around three and half months of harvesting season of the delicious fruit from May to mid-August.
Experts said the trees of this exotic variety contains mangoes and flowers or buddings simultaneously, producing yield three to four times in a year against the single yield from the conventional varieties.
Umme Salma, district training officer of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said Catimon mango is being cultivated on around 15 hectares of land in Rajshahi.
As a result of taking care of the trees regularly, there is an exceptional yield of the fruits and the mangoes are being sold at a high price. For this reason, more farmers are interested in cultivating the variety, she said.
Many growers have also raised nurseries alongside their orchards for selling Catimon saplings amid the increasing demand, she added.
This mango is not like the seasonal varieties of mango but it is tasty and sweet and has a high demand in the market compared to other varieties, the DAE official also said.
Normally, mango harvesting and marketing take place from mid-May to mid-August in the region.
However, the Catimon variety is still available in the local markets, and are being sold at Tk 8,000 per maund at present (Tk 200 per kg). One kilogramme contains four to five mangoes.
Dr Shafiqul Islam, principal scientific officer of Regional Fruit Research Station, said they are conducting research on the Thai mango variety to assess its extent of disease infestation.
Local entrepreneurs brought Catimon mango to Bangladesh from Thailand about six years ago and it quickly acclimatised to the local climate.
Since then, entrepreneurs in Rajshahi and its neighbouring districts have been increasingly turning to Catimon cultivation with about 250 farmers now growing the fruit, creating a new dimension in the field of mango farming.
Over time, many high yielding mango varieties and modern technologies are coming and enriching the mango production sector in the country, gradually turning the region’s economic sector vibrant.
Shakatwat Hossain Munshi, a mango farmer of Kanaiprara village under Puthia upazila, said almost every year new varieties of mangoes are being cultivated here through testing their quality.
Rafiqul Islam of Maria village in Durgapur upazila has established an orchard of Catimon mango at his village, inspiring many other villagers to follow him.
Islam had collected 1,100 saplings of the variety at Tk 180 apiece from Dinajpur and planted those on 25 bighas of land three years ago. Flowers started appearing in the subsequent year.
Rafiqul Islam said the number of fruits was not satisfactory due to less weight and height of trees in the first year. He got three to five kilogrammes of yield from each tree during the last three consecutive seasons.
The Catimon trees were planted in rows of three alongside two rows of banana trees, and unlike traditional mango orchards, the trees were rarely higher than six feet.
The agricultural entrepreneur went on to expand his mango orchard on 200 bighas of leased land.
This year, he harvested mangoes worth Tk 3.5 lakh.